Clean Water Act Application to Groundwater: Keeping Score

This article reviews the legal cases where courts have examined the question: If a pollutant is discharged into groundwater, and that groundwater is hydrologically connected to a “Water of the United States” (WOTUS) such that the pollutant eventually reaches the WOTUS, does the Clean Water Act (CWA) apply to that discharge?

Interestingly, in some cases, the court found that it did and in some cases it did not. Most of the cases have involved coal ash ponds, but the legal precedent could be used in agricultural cases where manure lagoons have contaminated WOTUS that fall under the jurisdiction of the CWA and that is making a lot of industrial farmers very nervous.

To read more about the current status of the WOTUS Clean Water Rule, go here. [Agrilife]